Why is it important to accurately model the land features of your project site with a toposurface?
- What aspects of a building design are most affected by the terrain features?
This project was harder to do because of the land features. Having to dig into the toposurface is something you would need to do in real life, so if you had the wrong measurements you might dig too much or too little. I think stability is a big part that is affected by the terrain features. It needs to be flat or to have steady columns that hold it up and that needs to be accurately measured beforehand.
When designing a project...
- Should the building adapt to the terrain?
- Or, should you adapt the terrain to the building?
I think you need to do both in different cases. Ideally, you adapt the building to the terrain. The natural landscape is the first architecture and is naturally beautiful. However, at times you need to change it to fit your design. Like in this project I needed to void the middle part of the toposolid for the basement floor. It was necessary in a sense, but the main build followed the terrain.
What considerations affect a project team's decision-making when deciding the floor-to-floor height to use in a multi-story building?
- From a real estate developer's perspective?
- From a designer's perspective?
- From an engineer's perspective?
- From a builder's perspective?
- From an owner's perspective?
They want the most square feet for the least amount of ground space. That way they can fit more houses in while still having lots of room. They like to go up.
They would probably like to keep it minimal on the number of floors. When you build up it is easy to get repetitive and that makes it difficult to create a pretty structure
They would like to keep the height minimal as well. Higher up makes it more unstable and requires more work.
They would like to keep it minimal because building up is more unsafe than staying close to the ground.
Depends on the person. A lot of stories can be burdensome and tiring. However, it is also nice to have multiple floors to split the house up and have more room.
What are the advantages of stacking the levels of a multi-story building vertically?
- Can you share an interesting example of a building that doesn’t vertically stack (where the floor plates change their shaped radically between the floor levels)?
- What were the advantages or reasons for non-vertical stacking?
Why do stairs follow specific proportions with a set relationship between the tread length and riser height?
- How can building modeling help prevent the mistakes that often occur when designing and installing stairs?